56 | ASIA ONE | JULY-AUGUST 2018
TREADING ON THE GLORIOUS PATH OF NATION
BUILDING
Driven by the core philosophy of Nation Building, Mr.
Adani ensures that each of the Group’s core businesses
are focused on helping build world class integrated
infrastructure capabilities that India needs to accelerate
its growth. According to him, Nation building amounts to
transforming the coastline of India by building a series
of ports and related logistic hubs and in the process
generates several tens of thousands of jobs. It also
means transforming the power scenario in India and
getting electricity to the several hundreds of millions
who need electricity. It is tantamount to enabling the
food security by building a modern agriculture supply
chain that empowers the farmers of our country. It also
refers to becoming one of the largest global players
in sustainable energy by making the largest national
commitment to the solar ecosystem and building
an integrated manufacturing, generation, and solar
park business and in the process fulfil the country’s
sustainable development objectives. No wonder,
under his quintessential leadership, the Adani Group
is functioning efficiently in all these spheres and is
leading the nation to prosperity. Focused on his vision
of achieving his 2020 targets — 200 million metric tonne
(MMT) of coal trading, 200 MMT of cargo handled and
20,000 MW of power generation capacity — Mr. Adani
possesses the power to enthuse his team with the
vigour and motivation to excel and is a strong source of
inspiration for them.
TAKING SMART STEPS TO SUCCESS
Mr. Adani is guided by the notion that if anything is worth
doing, then it should be done on a global scale and
given the country’s rapid growth, the way to build global
scale is to use it as the launching pad. First of all, the
organization needs to set a goal – to aim to be number
one – and that by itself is motivating for the team to
rally round a precise objective. Secondly, the scale that
emerges by thinking big drives solutions that otherwise
may have seemed infeasible or uneconomical. And lastly
and most importantly, such vision helps attract the type
of people that get excited by the massive challenges
that many businesses would not even consider. Over the
years, this tripartite formula has become the core mantra
of success for the leadership philosophy Mr. Adani has
espoused and the Group’s growth is a manifestation of the
Company’s empowered leaders delivering extraordinary
results.THE MAN WITH AN INHERENT VISION
Mr. Adani’s remarkable ability to convert his dreams into
reality is not the outcome of any formal education but has
more to do with his inherent ability to gauge opportunities
early on and stay the course despite the odds. Hailing
from a family of seven siblings, Mr. Adani’s father was into
commodities trading. “Although my father lacked formal
education, he was a good trader and never hesitated to trust
his instinct. A trait that, I believe, runs in my genes as well,”
declares Mr. Adani, who left his hometown to come down to“REMINISCING HIS FIRST TRADE WITH A
JAPANESE BUYER, HE SAYS, ‘IT TOOK ME 4
DAYS TO SEAL THE DEAL BUT FETCHED ME
A COMMISSION OF RS. 10,000. THAT DEAL
GAVE ME THE CONFIDENCE THAT I COULD
DO BUSINESS ON MY OWN’”
Mumbai in the 1980s to join the diamond trading business,
which was then considered a growing business. Despite
the fact that he tried to pursue a degree from Hinduja
College of Commerce, he found it difficult to manage both,
classes and work at Zaveri Bazaar, the hub for gems and
jewellery traders in south Mumbai. Thus, he dropped out,
a decision he has never regretted. “Sometimes, being too
educated tends to make an individual more risk-averse
— a trait alien to an entrepreneur’s core DNA,” quips Mr.
Adani. Reminiscing his first trade with a Japanese buyer,
he says, “It took me four days to seal the deal but fetched
me a commission of Rs. 10,000. That deal gave me the
confidence that I could do business on my own.”
After returning to Ahmedabad a year later to join one
of his brothers who had bought a plastics unit, Mr. Adani
displayed his best entrepreneurial skills. Not content
with the fact that against a monthly requirement of 10
MT of PVC resin, they were getting a quota of only 2 MT,
he monetized the shortcoming and turned it into a money
spinner. “It was more profitable to sell the quota in the
open market than to manufacture PVC films,” recalls
Mr. Adani, who went on to capitalize on the new export-
import policy in 1985 that allowed most raw materials
to be imported under the open general license, and
also marked the birth of Adani Enterprises (then Adani
Exports). Under his able leadership, the Group became2017-18
PERSON OF THE YEAR
GAUTAM ADANI